es of
wheat, which seems almost incredible. In many countries this fruit is
the staff of life, flourishing as far as thirty-five degrees south and
thirty-eight north of the equator.

There may be poverty here,--it is to be found nearly everywhere if
sought for,--but there is no abject want visible, for these Singhalese
homes are all surrounded by plenty. The mere physical support of life
seems abundantly provided for, however the moral conditions may strike
the careful observer.

Is it not a singular provision of nature that where vegetation is most
thrifty, where fruits and flowers grow in wildest exuberance, elevated
humanity thrives the least?

A very humble class of Moormen, Malays, Singhalese, and Tamils,
together with Syrian Jews and the like, a mixed and motley population,
constitute the larger portion of the community in the Pettah, but
there are some buildings, shops, bazaars, and residences of a better
class than those we have described. Such are mostly occupied by
Parsees and Moormen, so that Black Town is not quite so "black" as
might seem to the casual reader. The Moormen wear an impossible sort
of hat, tall and brimless; others have sensible, broad-brimmed
panamas, and some don the picturesque fez so universal in the East.
The sienna-colored Singhalese proper are descended from the early
conquerors of the island, the dark-brown Tamils from later invaders
who came from southern India, and the copper-colored Moormen from the
Arab merchants who came hither to trade for spices many centuries ago.
The Singhalese have long, straight, black and silky hair, and are
nearly always bareheaded. The Tamils as invariably wear turbans.
According to the rules of caste, the Singhalese, being superior, has a
right to go bareheaded, a privilege which is not allowed to the
Tamils. This absurdity is on a par with the average rules relating to
caste as enforced in India and Ceylon. Of the rights recognized under
the system, none is more jealously guarded than that of carrying an
umbrella to shield the bearer from the fiery heat of the sun, or the
pitiless downpour of equatorial rains. In the olden times, in Kandy,
only royalty and the priesthood were allowed the privilege. To the
average foreigner in continental India and Ceylon, the arbitrary rule
of caste seems to be the merest nonsense possible to conceive of, but
to the natives it is a matter of most serious consideration, and is
rigidly adhered to in all their daily re